I will be starting a job on Sonterra, just east of Stone Oak, (northwest of Hwy 281/1604). I'm looking for advice as to where I should rent or look for a home to buy.

No kids yet, but would rather not have to move if and when I have any, so school district is important. I also want good neighbors, ie those who I would trust babysitting. I've heard about the dreaded traffic at 281/1604, but have heard living inside 1604 may not be too bad since I'll be against the flow of most traffic.

If anyone has any leads for any rooms for rent until I can buy, let me know as well.

Looking forward to meeting some of yall!

Thanks.

Traffic here is kind of relative depending on where you came from. If you know Houston or Dallas traffic first hand then this is not near that bad. Now the drivers themselves are another thing all together. Plus whoever designed this city's streets and highways is/was not the most logical person.

As you can probably tell, just about anywhere along and outside of 1604 is growing like crazy. The schools around 1604 and 281 are very good from what I hear. I say that because my kids are in private school and don't know first hand. That area is real nice to live in. Lots of places to hang out as a single person and for young families as well. I would expect you to really enjoy SA. We moved here in 2000 and have enjoyed it tremendously.

There are around 20-25 HOA neighborhoods in the Stone Oak/Sonterra/Hardy Oaks area. The newest one is Terra Bella located on the far north end of Hardy Oaks. Houses are still going up there. It seems like the farther you get away from Stone Oak, the pricier the houses become.

Traffic in that area really does blow donkeyballs though. Sonterra at Stone Oak can just be a nightmare.

I am in landscape sales and know that area very well.

We have developed a lot of the neighborhoods in that area, and I really like that part of town. There are a ton of fun places to go, and lots of places to eat. The traffic situation isnt ideal, but like they said before its all relative depending on what you are used to.

Do you want a new house or an older home? I have family inside and outside of 1604 right around 281 and both areas are very nice. School districts are good too. Just depends on what you're looking for I think.

If you're looking to buy, that area has homes from the 150's and up as high as you wanna go. There are a few home builders(Highland, Centex and others)still building. They have also extended Canyon Golf rd all the way to Borgfield(Timberwood Park area). You can get to Sonterra from anywhere in Stone Oak and north w/out getting on 281.

Thanks for your responses. I definitely want to buy at some point, but may have to rent first to figure out where I want to be. New v. old construction doesn't matter as much as value to me. Exactly how bad is the Sonterra/Stone Oak intersection. Is it so bad that I would want to live inside the loop so I only have to battle it to and from work and not when I want to go out on the town?

Where might I find something that still has room to appreciate in value while still being close to work?

My personal opinion:

If your new to the city and unsure of what part of town you want to be in I would recommend either finding a 6 month sublet/6 month lease in the area you're initially interested in. Find out if it works for you before dropping money on a house. Especially a new house. The return on new construction, especially north of 1604, is going to be a lot slower than an older well established desirable neighborhood. To buy something new in that area and then deciding to sell a year or two later will find your property competing with brand new construction just down the street for roughly the same price, or if the market is saturated, even less then what you paid.

Find out how the traffic works, what you'll be doing on your weekends and what parts of town your friends are living in and then look to buy.

I definitely have my preferences in this town regarding neighborhoods, but they're all further south on 281 than what you're looking for right now.

My wife and I are building a house in Terra Bella off Hardy Oak and Wilderness Oak... Really nice area, good neighbors (from what I can tell). Lots of homes out there, find a neighborhood you like and go from there since there are tons of builders and each subdivision is different from the one across the street.

All of the advice on here has been spot on.

DO NOT buy a home around Stone Oak Pkwy. Just the small amount of time I have to spend along that street drives me insane. Every single day some idiot pulls out of the Cornerstone church and nearly wipes out a few cars. The congestion along that road makes me want to pull my hair out.

Keep the advice coming! I'm going to drive around there this weekend to see what I find.

Is traffic always bad, or is it just around 8am and 5pm that it is bad at Stone Oak and the 281/1604 interchange?

around 6:30, it's not that bad...but once morning traffic really picks up, it gets pretty packed. I've been down that road at all times of the day. Ideally, I'd avoid it from 7a-7p.

I'm tired of the slow-pokes or the people pulling out to cross to the other side. You'll see that they have long spaces (middle "turn lanes" ) between the thick median sections. So many people don't know how to act in those middle areas and end up pulling in front of other cars. I seriously almost t-bone someone everyday because they decide that pulling out in front of oncoming traffic might not be so bad. Just an hour ago I saw a minivan almost get creamed by a construction truck WHILE I almost t-boned someone darting out from the cornerstone church to get to the middle lane. It was a mess.

Yes, traffic will always be found in big cities. I just do not like this area at all and would not live in it.

[This message has been edited by AggieDarlin (edited 10/17/2007 5:33p).]

Terra Bella is very nice. The flowers out at the entries and Amenity center will be changed out soon and it will look awesome.

Point of reference is everything. After living in North Dallas for 20 years Stone Oak and SA traffic is a piece of cake. We love it here. Great schools (and high taxes), solid resale values, retail and restaurants improving daily, etc. If you need to go with an apartment get advice from someone that knows the business. Due to school capping and future road construction there are deals to be found. Just negotiate. Be wary of the "look and lease" crap. There are ways around it.
I know 2 very nice Aggies who would NOT recommend the apartments on Sonterra Blvd near Stone Oak Pkwy. Management made a change for the worse. Good luck to you.

I'd love to get in touch with the people that didn't like the apartments near there. Any more particular reasons why?

Can someone explain the school situation. I've heard that they are capping enrollment, but how exactly does that work? If I have kids in 5 years, where does that put me?

Maybe my work schedule can help me avoid some of the traffic.

Any other insight is greatly appreciated. Are any of yall involved in the Aggie club in SA? I've briefly heard of Aggie Park, but where else are most of the events?

My office is right at 1604 and Blanco. There are several apartments along 1604 near Blanco and over to Bitters (Talavera, Costa Bella, Blanco Springs). Of course, there are others just inside or outside of 1604 as well.

On the traffice situation, I grew up around Houston and had to go into town several time during rush hour. San Antonio, and in particular the area you are talking about is nothing compared to Houston. It is not like it takes one 30 minutes from the Stone Oak area just to get to 281. There is some traffic but there is traffic in every city. It is not unbearable. I have people that work for me that live on the west side of town and drive 1604 all the from past Bandera road to Blanco. It takes them less than 30 minutes. There is traffic but not that bad.

Now it will take some getting use to the drivers as well noted above. They still drive me crazy. Also I find it odd that on the freeways there is not consistancy with the traffic. Sure there are areas that get congested but some days worse than others without any pattern. Who knows.

Don't know much about how the capping of the school works. At this point my kids are going to private school. Plus I don't live in Stone Oak. Just work there. You will like the area. Lots of things to do. And you are still in Texas so you know the women are hot! (just don't tell my wife I notice)

i work on Sonterra blvd too and live off Huebner & Stone Oak. The commute is GREAT.

there are plenty of apts on stone oak as well as along 1604. if you want to buy house, look on blanco inside 1604, pretty reasonable. hollywood park and HCV are great too, but larger more expensive homes...

How long does that commute take Proud? I'm thinking about just renting at the Lodge or Claremore so that I can be right there and not have to fight any Stone Oak traffic getting to Sonterra. I'd prefer not to have to spend 10-15 minutes for a couple mile commute down Stone Oak. My problem is that I don't know how slowly traffic really moves on Stone Oak. Thanks to some of the prior posts, it makes me think even living at Claremore may have its issues, but until I compare it to what I'm used to, there's no way to tell.

Thanks for all of the input on this thread.

Definitely recommend avoiding Stone Oak. My Gf's sister lived at the Alta Apartments, which is up the hill on Stone Oak, and it was a nightmare for her to get to 281 either by going out the back way or through the front. That mega church is packed full of idiots that have no concept of how to drive and getting out of there on a Sunday morning is a pain. I recommend living off of Blanco outside 1604 or further in towards Churchill if you don't want a McMansion and have a little more money to spend.

That area is either Northside ISD or North East ISD. Depends on where you live. Stone Oak is North East. Sontrea and I could be wrong but, I think it is Northside.

I live in the Stone Oak area, and for our family, it's perfect. The traffic sucks plenty, but that's also a message that it's obviously a desirable place to be. IMO, it's the nicest overall area of town. (Some would argue the I-10 corridor is nicer, particularly outside 1604, but it's not quite as developed yet.)

Everything you could possibly want is within a few miles...great eating, nice shopping, churches, GREAT schools (arguably the best in the city), a nice hospital (and another on the way), a number of good private schools, etc. It also offers a taste of the hill country, because you're right on the southern border of it.

In San Antonio, you'll find plenty of snobs about their part of town...Alamo Heights snobs, I-10 snobs, Hollywood Park snobs, etc. I'm a Stone Oak snob.

AggieBusDriver,

Who are you building with in Terra Bella? We're building right now as well and going with Newmark. Maybe we'll be neighbors.

Sorry, last post...I find it humorous reading all the posts about bad drivers. When I lived in Houston, I swore they had the worst drivers. Then I moved to Odessa, and they were even worse. But College Station took the cake...until I moved to Lubbock. And oh my God...the drivers in Michigan made the Lubbock drivers look like professionals!!! And now San Antonio...God, I wish I lived in Michigan!!!

Point being...take these comments with a grain of salt. Every poster is probably just a bad driver themselves and likes blaming the other guy. At least that's my problem!!!

Old Jock - We're building with Wilshire. We looked at Newmark and didn't find a floor plan we really liked. Our house is going to start next week, so it should be done in 5 months or so. We've been waiting to get the building process started for 3 months or so now. So, you'll be on the other side of the "lagoon", but still in the same neighborhood. Glad to hear there will be some Ags in there, our current neighborhood is full of tea sips.

I've lived in the 1604/Blanco area my whole life and went to both schools (Reagan and Churchill) in that area. It is NEISD schools, which are very good. Proud touched on it some. There are some nice places along Blanco inside 1604. Neighborhoods like Deerfield, Blanco Woods, Hollywood Park, Hill Country Village. Apartments are going to be more north of 1604, but Talavera is decent as well.

With what you are talking about, you can either live in the Churchill district or Reagan possibly. They are building another high school to take the kids north of 1604 and east of 281. This will take kids away from Reagan. Both Reagan and Churchill are great schools, although I would bet the schools that feed into Reagan are better than the ones that feed into Churchill. Kids aren't going to have problems challenging themselves at either high school.

They just built some new additions to Churchill and other schools with one of the bond packages. Overall, you can't go wrong with schools as far as the Churchill area and north of that (Reagan and the new school).

Old Jock - that made me laugh... I'm very familiar with San Antonio and Michigan driving and agree that they aren't great, but now I feel that Houston has the worst drivers/traffic ever! I would give anything to go back to San Antonio "traffic."

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We looked at Newmark and didn't find a floor plan we really liked.

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Thank you for pointing this out. We'll make it a point to NOT invite you over.

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We looked at Newmark and didn't find a floor plan we really liked.
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Thank you for pointing this out. We'll make it a point to NOT invite you over.

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Ok, maybe I should re-phrase.... We looked at Newmark and didn't find a floorplan we really liked that we could afford. Better? We're on the "cheap" side of the neighborhood, if you can really call it cheap.

Well I finally settled on an apartment, although with prices as high as they are, it seems more like a house payment. The convenience should be worth it though. I also have several months to find a house I like now.

I look forward to getting down there in Nov. When and where are all the Aggie gatherings in town after the 5th?

AggieBusDriver,

Do you have any kids? We've got two. I expect we'll get plenty of use out of the pool!!!

I was giving you a hard time. Certainly, to each his own. We had problems with plenty of Newmark/David Weekley/Wilshire homes in the neighborhood as well; however, we weren't ready to do custom, so we knew whatever we chose would not be perfect.

As long as you hate tu, we'll be happy to have you over!!!

No kids yet...hopefully soon though.

Our house is just about to be started, so we have about 5 months until we get into the neighborhood. We're getting ready to move into a rent house in the mean time, since we just sold our current house. Fun times.

Old Jock - Did you see the house that caught on fire on Artisan Way on the Wilshire side?

http://www.ksat.com/news/14418781/detail.html

[This message has been edited by AggieBusDriver (edited 10/27/2007 6:53p).]

That's awful (the fire). I hope they are insured, and are able to begin rebuilding the same house on a different lot and not lose any money.

Our house won't be done until May. It's an exciting process, isn't it?

From what I understand, the people want to rebuild their house on that lot. It's being handled by the insurance investigation right now, so they have to go through all of that.

Our house is supposed to be done in April-ish time frame.